1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dust collecting apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner in which dust and alien substance (hereinafter, contaminant)-laden air forms a rotating stream and contaminant can be separated from the rotating stream by centrifugal force, and a filter assembly employed by the cyclone dust collecting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a general cyclone dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner.
The cyclone dust collecting apparatus 10 comprises a cyclone body 11 which is a cyclone separator, a suction port 12 for drawing in contaminant-laden air, a discharge port 13 for discharging air separated of contaminant, a grille member which is a kind of filter and fluidly communicated to the discharge port 13, and a contaminant receptacle 15 for storing the contaminant separated from air.
Although not shown, the suction port 12 is fluidly communicated with a suction brush of the vacuum cleaner, and the discharge port 13 is fluidly communicated with a motor driving chamber having a suction motor of the vacuum cleaner.
The operation of the cyclone dust collecting apparatus 10 will be explained as below.
The suction port 12 is tangentially connected with an inner circumference of the cyclone body 11 so that air can form a rotating stream and descend along the inner circumference as introduced via the suction port 12 into the cyclone body 11. The air and contaminant are individually influenced by different centrifugal force to be separated from each other due to weight difference. Relatively greater-weighted contaminant than air is guided to the inner circumference of the cyclone body 11 to be collected into the contaminant receptacle 15 by the rotating stream and the self-weight.
Forming an ascending stream by a suction force of a suction motor (not shown), the air centrifugally-separated of the contaminant passes the grille member 14 to discharge via the discharge port 13 to the outside of the cyclone dust collecting apparatus 10.
The grille member 14 prevents the contaminant collected in the contaminant receptacle 15 from flowing backward and discharging to the outside, or filters minute contaminant, which is not centrifugally-separated. The grille member 14 may take on various configurations. Referring to FIG. 2, the grille member 14 generally has a cylindrical body 16, an opened top end connected to the discharge port 13, and a closed bottom end. The cylindrical body 16 has a plurality of air pores 17 for passing air.
The general cyclone collecting apparatus 10 has the grille member 14 to increase a dust collection efficiency. However, the grille member 14 reduces a suction performance of the vacuum cleaner. To maintain a proper suction force due to the reduction of suction performance, the suction power of suction motor should increase, thereby causing an increase of power consumption. Recently, a multi cyclone dust collecting apparatus was developed to increase the collection efficiency of minute dust, in which contaminant is centrifugally-separated from air in a two step process. It is more important to maintain the suction performance of the multi cyclone dust collecting apparatus.
Accordingly, it requires more air pores for air to pass in size or cross section as given in the design stage of the grille member 14.